Washington Examiner: Republicans learn to love community organizing

Posted by Leigh Evans on July 21, 2015

Washington Examiner, July 20, 2015 - When the Republican Party crowns a presidential nominee one year from now, he (or she) will be handed a campaign organization that is fully staffed and operational in every electoral battleground. That might be the most important component of the top-to-bottom overhaul of the Republican National Committee's voter turnout program undertaken since the 2012 presidential election, as detailed in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

Four years ago, GOP nominee Mitt Romney was outgunned and outclassed by President Obama in the trenches of door-to-door combat for votes in swing states. Obama's advantage was multifold — better data, better manipulation of that data, a better candidate. But the RNC concluded that Obama's advantage stemmed, as well, from fielding a more competent organization that never packed up and went home after he won the presidency in 2008.

The president's campaign stayed in the field and prepared for his 2012 re-election almost from the minute his first race ended, deepening ties to the community. Romney, meanwhile, secured the nomination after a protracted primary fight, and was forced to rush a team with varying experience into the competitive states with barely months to go before voting started — as had every non-incumbent GOP nominee before him.

The party determined not to get caught flat-footed again. So, the RNC took a page from Obama for America's playbook and decided to build an operation that would be permanently deployed and available for the Republican presidential nominee to lease every four years.